Collaborative Filmmaking as Method and Care

Datum
21. Mai 2025 

Webi­nar

Webi­nar with Yvonne Wal­lace and Jared Epp, enti­tled „Col­lab­o­ra­tive Film­mak­ing as Method and Care”

Join us on Zoom, May 21st (Wednes­day) at 18:00 – 19:30 CEST/ 17:00- 18:30 BST/ 10:00 – 11:30 MDT/ 12:00–13:30 EDT.

Click on this Zoom link on the event’s date:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81670318287?pwd=lL7Ss2yIY5SktHpRpNK3yHVwn3YVpe.1 meet­ing ID: 816 7031 8287, access code: 025154 

Don’t for­get to watch the 15 minute film pri­or to the webi­nar! (More details, and link to the video below)

Webi­nar on Col­lab­o­ra­tive Film­mak­ing as Method and Care – with Yvonne Wal­lace and Jared Epp

ABOUT THE TALK:
This webi­nar explores the research rela­tion­ship afford­ed by a par­tic­u­lar kind of mul­ti­modal ethnog­ra­phy, the “ethno­graph­ic B movie,” which anthro­pol­o­gist Jared Epp presents as research method (2024). Against pro­fes­sion­al aes­thet­ic that is typ­i­cal­ly expect­ed in images and film pro­duced through ethno­graph­ic research (Minh-ha 1991; Ruby 2000), Epp argues for an open-end­ed, low expec­ta­tion approach to col­lab­o­ra­tive cre­ativ­i­ty. The most impor­tant ele­ment of the ethno­graph­ic B movie is not the out­put or aca­d­e­m­ic relata­bil­i­ty but the kind of cre­ative space that emerges where all involved can express them­selves as they’d like. In a set­ting of inten­tion­al unpro­fes­sion­al­ism, Epp argues that the ethno­graph­ic B movie allows for both researcher and inter­locu­tor (read: col­lab­o­ra­tor) to be them­selves, and part of being them­selves is to take on the risk of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty (per­form­ing and cre­at­ing in front of each oth­er, in front of a cam­era, in front of an audience). 

How can this method be applied in aging research? Yvonne Wal­lace shares her expe­ri­ence adopt­ing the ethno­graph­ic B movie in the mak­ing of “Seniorsville” a spec­u­la­tive, ‘doc­u­men­tary of the future,’ co-writ­ten by and star­ring her inter­locu­tors from Edmon­ton, Alber­ta, Cana­da. Wal­lace explains how the ethno­graph­ic B movie, as a more pas­sive, def­er­en­tial modal­i­ty of co-cre­ation, served as an act of care with­in her research by cen­ter­ing the expe­ri­ences, con­tri­bu­tions, and agency of her inter­locu­tors. She and one of her pri­ma­ry col­lab­o­ra­tors will talk about the process of mak­ing the film, and what the ethno­graph­ic B movie method meant for the researcher and inter­locu­tor experience.

To con­clude, Epp and Wal­lace argue that it is an act of care to invite co-cre­ativ­i­ty in ethno­graph­ic research, allow­ing inter­locu­tors to share their sto­ries on their own terms and through which researcher and inter­locu­tor share in mutu­al vulnerability.

To make the most of this webi­nar, we encour­age the audi­ence to watch this 15-minute clip in advance. For those who can­not make it, the speak­ers will be includ­ing clips of our films with­in our pre­sen­ta­tion as well.
You can watch “Seniorsville” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvOtt3ZT2bs

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Yvonne Wal­lace is a PhD Can­di­date in social anthro­pol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Draw­ing on research with old­er adults liv­ing in a for-prof­it retire­ment home in down­town Edmon­ton, Cana­da, her project explores inter­sec­tions of aging and urban revi­tal­iza­tion, as well as impacts of the finan­cial­iza­tion of seniors hous­ing. More on Yvonne’s work here.

Jared Epp is a PhD Can­di­date in social anthro­pol­o­gy from Car­leton Uni­ver­si­ty in Ottawa, Cana­da. His research engages with filmic research-cre­ation to under­stand the inter­sec­tion of mad­ness, imag­i­na­tion and pre­car­i­ty in a Cana­di­an urban con­text. His films have been screened at KISMIF (2024), Freiburg­er Film­fo­rum (2023) and the Cana­di­an Anthro­po­log­i­cal Soci­ety annu­al con­fer­ence (2022). (see also here)

ABOUT THE WEBINAR SERIES „IMAGES, AGEING AND CARE”
This webi­nar series – free and open to all- gath­ers anthro­pol­o­gists and image-mak­ers inter­est­ed in explor­ing the onto­log­i­cal and epis­te­mo­log­i­cal con­nec­tions between images, aging and care, treat­ing the rela­tion­ship and these phe­nom­e­na as requir­ing and invit­ing inter­ro­ga­tion. It is spon­sored by the Images of Care Col­lec­tive, the Asso­ci­a­tion for Anthro­pol­o­gy, Geron­tol­ogy and the Life Course (AAGE), EASA’s Age and Gen­er­a­tions Net­work (AgeNet) and the Net­work for Visu­al Anthro­pol­o­gy of the Euro­pean Asso­ci­a­tion of Social Anthro­pol­o­gists (VANEASA). You can see our past webi­na­rs here.
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